Bianca Jagger Appeals to Company to Take Action in Ecuador: “ChevronTexaco is Evading its Moral and Ethical Responsibility”

Investors Holding More than some 58 Million Shares Vote for an Ecuador-related Resolution

San Ramon, CA — At yesterday’s ChevronTexaco Annual Meeting, CEO David
O’Reilly was met with a growing wave of controversy over the oil
pollution his company left in the Ecuadorian Amazon following two
decades of drilling. Amazonian indigenous leader Toribio Aguinda,
renowned human rights advocate Bianca Jagger, shareholders and local
clergy and labor leaders each appealed to Mr. O’Reilly for his
corporation to clean up the expansive oil contamination his company
created and that has resulted in an environmental disaster and health
crisis in the rainforest region.

Mr. Aguinda from the Cofan people explained to Mr. O’Reilly and
shareholders the toll oil operation and contamination have taken on his
community. “My people are on the brink of extinction. I fear we many
not be here in another five years.” The Cofan people now number only
800, down from 15,000 when Texaco (now ChevronTexaco) began oil
operation on their territory in the 1970s.

Several studies have documented the growing health crisis in the
oil region where Texaco operated and left behind more than 600 toxic
waste pits and an infrastructure that continues to pollute the area’s
rivers and streams—the only source of drinking water most people
have—with toxic oil waste to this day. The studies have found
significantly elevated levels of cancer, miscarriage and other health
effects in the communities near the Texaco oil pits. (Contact Amazon
Watch for copies of these studies.)

Also traveling from the region, Rosa Moreno, a licensed nurse,
spoke of the deplorable health conditions faced by the majority of her
community in San Carlos, all attributed to the toxic contamination of
the company’s unlined oil pits. “Every day, I see children with skin
irritations, men and women with cancer of the throat and pancreas,
women who have miscarriages, all in terrible pain.” Rosa has lost three
family members to cancer in the oil town near ChevronTexaco pits.

In response to the criticism of his company, Mr. O’Reilly on
several occasions told the room of some 200 shareholders, employees and
journalists that the Ecuadorian government was solely responsible for
the Amazon region’s ills, saying the oil pollution that has
contaminated the region is a result of subsequent oil operations by
Ecuadorian state oil company Petroecuador.

Mr. O’Reilly also stated that the Ecuadorian government is “inept”
and “inadequate,” in an attempt to explain why the people living near
his company’s former oil operations experience significantly higher
rates of cancer, miscarriages, birth defects and other health problems
than other populations.

Bianca Jagger, who has visited the polluted region of Ecuador twice
in the last six months, also spoke directly to the CEO. “ChevronTexaco
in Ecuador is responsible for the worst oil related disaster in the
history of Latin America, surpassing in scale the Exxon Valdez spill,”
stated Jagger. “None of my past experiences as a human rights advocate
prepared me for the suffering I witnessed. ChevronTexaco is evading its
moral and ethical responsibility.”

Jagger also warned that this situation has the potential to become
a major corporate governance issue for the company. “Has ChevronTexaco
management adequately disclosed the potential six billion dollar legal
liability to its shareholders?” asked Jagger.

Local clergy member Reverend Steven Harms who visited the region
last November also appealed to the company, explaining the poisoned
areas left in Ecuador had an effect here at home. “This is poisoning
the spirit of this community,” said Rev. Harms.

Investors also took center stage expressing concern that the
Ecuador situation could harm the company. A resolution sponsored by
Trillium Assets Management (www.trilliuminvest.com) garnered 9 percent
support from investors. Both New York Common Retirement Fund holding
$350 million in shares and and the Californian Public Employees
Retirement System (CALPERS) voted in favor of the resolution.